Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
roasted chicken on a wooden table with sides and place settings
roasted chicken on a wooden table with sides and place settings
Gabriel Garcia Marengo/Unsplash

5 Ways To Stay Healthy During Thanksgiving

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Hillary Coombs
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Bryant chapter.

Every year, Thanksgiving comes and we use the celebration of pilgrims and Indians as an excuse to stuff our faces with delicious turkey, stuffing and desserts. Then, for days to follow, we continue to stuff our faces with left overs. But what if you are headed to Florida for winter break? Or prepping to take a cruise? Of course, most of us will probably forget about our diets for the day, but for those of you who don’t want to lose all your hard work – here are 5 ways to stay healthy during Thanksgiving.

  1. Portion – Don’t take as much as you can fit on one plate. Instead take a small spoonful of whatever you want and space the food out. If you try having the different foods not touch it allows you to take up space on your plate with nothing!

  2. Colorful – Get your greens, your meats, your carbs, get them all! Making your plate colorful is recommended on a daily basis, so why not apply it to Thanksgiving. Making your plate colorful ensures you have all the different food groups (and it helps us think we have more than we really do).

  3. Slow Down – Take your time. Don’t wolf down your whole plate before even realizing how full you are. Enjoy a conversation with a family member while eating to help slow down your bites. This will help you to realize how full you are before you have already over eaten.

  4. Water – I am sorry to say it, but skip the soda, wine, champagne, etc. this Thanksgiving. If you are trying to stay healthy alcohol is the biggest waste of calories. Head to the sink and see if the host has some lemon to spice it up. Save those calories for an extra serving of stuffing (obviously).  

  5. Choose a dessert – I know there will be ten different options at the dessert table, and they will all look equally delicious. BUT if you can limit yourself to just one dessert you don’t have to cut them out completely. We find that allowing ourselves to have something we want/crave (but in a small portion) is better than trying to force ourselves to go without it. That usually leads to an angry girl and the need to eat twice as much later.

While most of us at Her Campus will personally will be stuffing our faces from the 28th to the 30th, if you are looking to stay healthy this Thanksgiving hopefully these tips help! And all the power to ya!

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar
Hillary Coombs is a junior at Bryant University studying International Business and Marketing minoring in Chinese and Spanish. She works during the summers at Westminster Tool blogging and updating all social media accounts as well as interning in the International Affairs office. During the fall of 2012, Hillary studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain where she held a marketing internship and perfected her Spanish language. At Bryant, she works in the Office of Planning and Institutional Research gathering crucial university data and presenting it through documents to the President, Deans, and other faculty members of Bryant University. Aside from working and studying Hillary is a member of the Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority and Omicorn Delta Kappa. Hillary finds peace of mind staying active and running in local 5K races.